Ratchet and Clank-Time Travel: What-If?
by RatchetKicksAss44
Summary: This is a branch off of YellowDizzyLombax's story. Ratchet has found a time portal while repairing the Great Clock after General Alister Azimuth has tried to rescue the lombaxes. He runs into his parents who, at the time, are just boyfriend/girlfriend. Ratchet accepts their offer to stay at their home. Soon, they'll realize they've made a big mistake.


Shattered glass was everywhere. Wires were hanging dangerously from the ceiling. Pipes were cracked and full of imperfections. However, even with all of this damage in the Great Clock, the universe was still, though just barely, in one piece.

The elder Lombax was the one who almost caused the destruction of the universe, however, the son of his deceased best friend got the message through to him that the Clock was not a time machine. Unfortunately, this message was given too late. There was no stopping it without death.

General Alister Azimuth sacrificed himself to save the universe just before causing a rip in space that could bring the whole universe down to its knees. This caused great grief for a certain golden Lombax known as Ratchet. He didn't realize how alone he felt without another Lombax in his life until Azimuth was taken away. He didn't know how much it stung his soul after Tachyon had told him everything, because Alister's appearance seemed to drown it in Ratchet's lust to see his parents in person. Alister had been his only connection with the old Fastoon. Now, it was back to being solo lombax, and Ratchet didn't think he could take it.

It had been a few days since this incident happened, but Ratchet was still feeling the same. Sadness. Emptiness. Loneness. Those three emotions circled around his body.

He helped his robot friend, Clank, out with the cleaning around the Great Clock. The Zoni were busy repairing glass floors, broken pipes and the snapped wires. Sigmund was making sure everything was flowing okay throughout the universe - checking for time paradoxes, rips in time fabrication, and traversable wormholes.

At this time, the golden Lombax was moving heavy pipes into the right place so the Zoni could fix them using their pure-energy bodies and put them where they belonged. As the hours went by, the Lombax got more and more tired. He wiped the sweat off his forehead.

Clank noticed these actions, so he walked over to his friend. "Ratchet, go and take a break. You have been working for three days without stopping for a decent amount of time," He ordered. Despite taking an authoritative tone with his friend, concern rang in his voice.

"Are you sure? I mean there is still so much to do."

The robot placed his fists on his sides. "Yes, Ratchet. You need it."

The Lombax stared at Clank for a second. "Okay," He replied back slowly. He put down the pipe he was holding, and walked out of the room.

Ratchet walked down the corridor wearily. Nothing in his sight interested him. The same colours were seen: blue and gold. Most things were broken, so the technology was useless to look at. Same old boring routine.

The younger turned to the right and carried on walking. He stopped. His emerald eyes widened at the sight before him. There was a time portal in the hallway. Obviously, Sigmund wouldn't think to check for any time imperfections in the Clock, which explained its existence. Ratchet stepped in front of the portal, trying to get a better view and guess what was on the other side.

From what he could make out, it looked like the time portal was on a desert type planet on the other side. Many people were walking around. The people seemed to have a similar shape structure to himself, but were better built and taller.

Ratchet knew he shouldn't and get into trouble by entering, but the portal seemed to have thrown him into a trance as he slowly lifted his hand to it. He made the same actions when Tachyon granted him access to the Lombax dimension, however this time was different, there were no threats, no demented beings to twist his mind against the lombaxes. He stepped through.

The first thing that the golden Lombax saw was a blinding light. He had to cover his eyes with his hands for a few seconds. Once his vision cleared up and his eyes got used to the light, he removed his hands from his face.

He stopped breathing as he glanced at the sight around him. He seemed to end up on Planet Fastoon, but it looked different. This time the buildings weren't destroyed and in ruins. Many Lombaxes were seen walking around. Ratchet blinked like he thought he was in a dream.

He pinched his arm, and pain was felt. Okay, so maybe he wasn't dreaming.

Was he in the Lombax dimension? Or has he gone back in time?

The younger was standing in the town center of planet Fastoon, staring at his surroundings, taking in all the detail. Slowly, his feet started to move as he wanted to look around the place. He wasn't paying attention on where he was walking, instead he stared in awe at all the buildings and seeing so many Lombaxes at once.

The Lombaxes had different fur colours, going from golden, like his, to white, like Alister's. There were even some grey Lombaxes along with red or black ones. There was the occasional blue or cream furred Lombax. They also had unique stripe patterns and colours, some nothing like his own.

Ratchet hadn't been concentrating on where he was walking, which resulted in bumping into someone. "Oh, sorry about that." He looked up at the figure's face and his eyes widened in shock.

Standing in front of him was a male, about his age, that looked like the same Lombax in Alister's pocket watch. He had dark golden fur with orange-brown stripes going over his ears, cheeks, arms and tail. He was slightly taller than Ratchet by a few inches. The male had the same shade of eye color as Ratchet as he stared at the other. It was Kaden.

The male Lombax smiled. "Ah, there's no problem. Happens all the time," he chuckled. Kaden was about to move on when Ratchet grabbed his shirt sleeve slightly. The other looked at the younger with a raised eyebrow to show his confusion. "Yes?"

"D-Don't you recognize me?"

"Nope. The first time I've seen you around here. You've just come to Fastoon recently or something?" Kaden asked.

_I must have gone back in time if he doesn't know who I am._"Oh, sorry. I must have mistaken you for someone else." He finally let go of Kaden's sleeve to rub the back of his neck in a sheepish manner. "Uh, well... It's a confusing story as to why I'm here. I've been on Fastoon once before, but, ah, had some trouble with a...certain person. N-Not that it matters. I just wanted to see if anything, uh, had changed." Ratchet stumbled nervously.

Kaden smirked at the other's reaction. "No need to be nervous, friend. And no-" He looked around their surroundings. "Nothing has changed much. But there _is _a new building that is in progress: The Court of Azimuth."

"Does that happen to be named after Alister Azimuth?" Ratchet had always wondered that since Tachyon mentioned it two years ago before their final fight.

"Well, technically, no. It's named after his father, who was the Praetorian Guard's four bolt magistrate general. Sadly, he was killed in action a few months ago, so Alister was made the next general and decided on the name." Kaden replied, sadness filling his eyes slightly. "Oh." Ratchet's ears dropped a bit. "Sorry to hear that. He must have been a good man."

The dark golden Lombax smiled a little. "Yeah, he was." He chuckled. "Alister's just like him. Brave, smart, loyal, fearless. Someone for people to look up to."

He joined in with the smile and nodded in agreement. Suddenly, both Lombaxes heard a female shout out Kaden's name. The males turned around to see a young female Lombax running in their direction.

She looked a little younger than Kaden, probably by two or three years. She had light yellow fur, with light brown stripes: like Ratchet's. The sunlight reflected off her happy, crystal blue eyes. She also had slightly smaller ears than the males, and had no tail. Her shoulder-length blond hair with brown stripes flew in the wind as she ran.

The yellow female wore a baby blue dress that came half way down her legs, and covered the top part of her arms. A black belt was wrapped around her waist. She also wore Spanish blue open shoes that matched her dress.

When the female reached the two males, Kaden lifted her up and spun around a few times as they hugged each other. He carefully put her back on the ground. "Hey, Katy. Sorry I haven't been able to see you for a few days, works been busy. I was just on my way home, until I walked into this fellow." He mentioned towards Ratchet, who waved awkwardly.

"Oh, that's not a problem, Kaden." When he gestured to the other golden Lombax near them, she smiled warmly. "I haven't seen you around these areas before. You new here?"

"Y-Yeah." Ratchet replied. He was looking at the female. It all made sense now. That was his mother, or at least, his father's girlfriend at this time. He was talking to his parents. Hot pricks appeared behind his eyes, but he refused to let the tears fall in front of the two other Lombaxes.

"That's a shame you haven't been here before. It's such a wonderful place. You got a place to stay or did you just land your ship at the first available port?"

Ratchet was baffled by all the questions coming his way. _Maybe that's where I get it from,__ thought Ratchet to himself._ Taking his focus out of his thoughts, he glanced at Katy, who was still smiling kindly. "Eh, no I haven't got a place to stay, but I er-"

"Oh, you can stay around ours of the night, if you want to. We have a spare room that you can stay in," she interrupted. Her blue eyes looked at the male she was holding hands with. "Can't he?"

"Of course he can," Kaden answered, smiling too. "We wouldn't want you sleeping on the streets."

The younger was shocked at the welcoming comments. Kaden and Katy just offering their guest room to a complete stranger? He wasn't sure if he should or not. Clank was definitely worrying about his disappearance. What if the portal didn't stay open for much longer? On the other hand, he'd get to know his parents personally instead of Alister telling stories about them. But then, if he left knowing so much about them, wouldn't he be in more grief for not being able to talk to them again?

_Decisions, decisions._ Ratchet hesitated just a bit longer, then said, "Okay."

Kaden smiled. "Alright. Then it's settled. We were just leaving, so just follow us. You can hitch a ride on our ship. Let's go."

**Sorry I've been so inactive. I've had 7,000.9 things to do since I started summer vacation. Get up to go to 7:30 swim team, make a teaching plan for my parkour class, etc. Anyway, this is a bridge off of YDL's story Time Travel, except I've changed Ratchet's answer to his parents' hospitality. Later, they will realize they made a mistake…**


End file.
